EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) — The Meadowlands has barred its leading trainer from the track after one of his horses tested positive for a banned drug after a race last month.

The track announced Thursday that beginning with races of May 24 it will not accept entries from trainer Ken Rucker. His horses that were already scheduled to compete this weekend will be required to report to the track the night before they race and stay in a detention barn.

Rucker's horse Highland Pride A, which won the eighth race at the Meadowlands on April 30, tested positive for erythropoietin, or EPO, a banned performance-enhancer. The horse is barred from racing until it produces a negative test.

The positive test was the first at the Meadowlands since the New Jersey Racing Commission began testing for EPO this March.

Rucker currently leads Meadowlands trainers with 68 wins and $1,491,996 in earnings in 2006.

The action against Rucker came a little over a month after the racing commission suspended five people for as much as 10 1/2 years in an alleged race-fixing scheme involving races at the Meadowlands. The five were accused of plotting to fix the races by injecting horses with EPO and other banned performance-enhancing drugs.

One of the five, Seldon Ledford, was the track's leading trainer at the time.

So will he be allowed to race in Illinois? I really don't want to race against someone whos horses are racing on rocket fuel! This is really embarising for the state of Illinois harness racing with the two top trainers racing out east getting caught red handed and they both come from Beecher Illinois!The Mayor of Beecher should issue a proclimation declaring his town as an EPO freindly town.